Evergrey

The Dark Discovery (1998)
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Evergrey´s 1998 debut album isn´t a masterpiece but it allready contains elements and ideas that will be perfectionized in their next couple of albums. The mix of heavy metal with prog metal and some gothic metal makes them also quite original. I can't think of any other band with a similar sound. Maybe Nevermore? Although that only goes for the music.
Tom S Englunds emotional vocals are perfect for this type of dark metal. The production is abit muddy, something that will improve alot with the next album. I´d recommend to listen with headphones!


Blackened Dawn
Heavy riffs and some cool drum fills, sparse keyboards and Tom allready asking if the sun will be rising... what a way to open an album!
Then the song gets on midtempo with an ominous sounding choir on the background, nice drums and in comes the chorus. Not a catchy one but very effective. After a quicker second verse we get a short but addictive guitar riff.
After the chorus we get a slower instrumental part with the emphasis on spooky dark long keyboard notes accompanied by the addictive guitar riff.
A short bridge is followed by the chorus and then a sudden ending which flows nicely into to the second song.

December 26th
Heavy riffs, creepy keyboard sounds and Tom singing as if he was possessed by demons (perhaps the ones coming out of the chest on the album cover?) Not your typical boxing day song.
Different spoken vocal layers make this even more eerie.
Fantastic bridge with great chuggy guitar riff followed by chorus and then the second verse.
Heavier drumming in this one and instead of going into bridge and chorus again we get a melodic guitar solo.
Then the chorus, drums and a shredding guitar solo this time. Very nice! Midtempo instrumental part, and great bass fill around 3:03 followed by synths and tasty guitar riff. This is my favourite part of the song! Instrumental part continues and finally we´re back to the chorus on repeat and again a sudden ending which flows into the title track.
 
First of all, thanks @MindRuler for starting this retrospective! Evergrey is one of my favorite bands and despite loving most of their material there are certainly songs, and even entire albums, that I don't revisit as much as I used to, so it's going to be fun to go back. I think I'll try and give numerical scores as well, to clarify my reviews for each song (and album), but my views aren't as rigid as my Maiden opinions, so expect some wonkiness and vagueness in the scoring.

Blackened Dawn
Evergrey has changed a lot throughout their career, but there are plenty of staples and tropes of their trademark sound already heard in this very first song. Dark atmospheres, heavy incorporation of keyboard layers, somewhat unorthodox verse structures (you'll never read Evergrey lyrics and mistake them for poetry based on iambic meter or stuff like that), personal lyrics based on emotional struggles. And of course Tom's powerful vocals. If I recall correctly they used to have a different vocalist who left the band soon before the recording of the first album, so Tom's then girlfriend (later wife and now ex-wife) Carina (we'll see that name quite often!) gave him some lessons and brought him up to speed. Really impressive results.
There's a certain rawness to the album that I really appreciate. The instrumental section right before the bridge is neat in how it takes the opening riff and transforms it into something different. The live version of this particular section is awesome, hearing thousands of voices screaming "hey!" with every snare hit. The transition to the bridge works well, but the one from the bridge to the chorus is a bit clumsy.
All in all, not at all how the band sounds nowadays, but a great introduction to their early years. I'll go with an 8/10.

December 26th
Always enjoyed the half-spoken vocals in the verse, especially the second time around with the vocal harmonies. No something I'd want regularly, but here it works really well. I really like the variety in vocal approaches on this song in general. In addition to the spoken stuff we have Tom's normal range, as well as some of his higher range in the pre-chorus. He packs an aggression that will not be present in the modern albums anymore. Guess the hunger of a young band is very different to the experience of an established act.
The lead guitar isn't doing anything flashy in the first lead section but there are some lovely melodies. The proper solo features some sweep picking, the guitarists aren't shy in showing off when necessary. Love the riff right after the solo and the little bass fills are really fun.
The first chorus of the song being cut short is a bit jarring, but it makes the other choruses being longer more effective, so that's awesome.
This song shines in the guitar work and the amount of riffs really pushes its score. It'll get a 7/10.

Dark Discovery
Title track time! I love how the first minute of the song is structured. We get some keys, an arpeggiated bass riff and Tom's lower-mid register. The drums and guitars enter, his vocals change register and we get some piano backing while the song picks up speed. The chorus has some creative riffing as well as changing drum rhythms at different repetitions, changing the context of the riff.
Verse and chorus repeat, before getting a riff that breaks up the brooding atmosphere of the song (or rather the album, at this point) and then we get to another Evergrey staple: Samples, in particular vocal samples. They really like having spoken word passages here and there; sometimes they work, others not so much. This is one of the better examples imo. The riff right after, with the heavy choir synth backing, is a great change of pace and despite being in 4/4 sounds a bit like it's in odd-time. Not the craziest thing, but still a nice touch. We return to the chorus before ending the song (rather abruptly might I add, something they do a lot on this album). Like the opener 8/10.

As Light Is Our Darkness
The next "staple" of Evergrey albums, if you want to call it that: A shorter interlude, often linked to the next song. We get some acoustic guitars and Tom's vocals on top. Another Evergrey staple: Lyrics with wrong English! ("Even though my tears tells me not to") :D The funny thing is that this happens regularly on the recent albums as well and it's almost endearing lol
Other than that the song itself is not the most demanding composition, but the chorus has lovely vocal melodies which we'll see on the next song in a different context.
The second verse plays around some more with vocal harmonies and some acoustic guitar licks here and there. Despite being so short the second half of the song is a bit repetitive with the same idea being repeated over and over again. It's not a bad song, but they'll go on an write songs in a similar style that are far superior, so I'll go with a rather low 6/10 (don't wanna start inflating the scores too early and handing out 9s and 10s everywhere).

Beyond Salvation
The second part to the previous song, which explains why it starts so suddenly. After some riffs drenched in keyboards we get a reprise of the previous song's chorus, this time backed by the typical metal instruments.
I like that every now and then the guitars drop out or leave gaps in the riffs to let the bass breathe and get the spot light from time to time. It's a pet peeve of mine when you can't hear the bass in a metal song, which happens with many overproduced modern metal bands.
The little twin lead section after the second chorus is awesome, but that entire section is a bit let down by the album's production. This and the part that follows could've turned out even better with some adjustments.
The acoustic guitars return, while the distorted rhythm guitars play around with some phrygian riffs. The outro of the song keeps repeating the same riff while slowly fading out (another pet peeve of mine). Unfortunately the riff isn't the most interesting. Then we get some rain and storm sounds to transition to the next song. Honestly, the final minute could've been removed and the previous song added to this one and I think I'd be happier overall, but it's still fun to listen to every once in a while. We're back at a 7/10.

My reviews for the rest of the album will follow tomorrow, busy day today.
 
Great review @Vaenyr ! I forgot to put my score to each song but after reviewing the whole album I´ll rank them in a Top 10. Don´t think any will remain there after reviewing Solitude Dominance Tragedy though.
 
MindRuler said:
Great review @Vaenyr ! I forgot to put my score to each song but after reviewing the whole album I´ll rank them in a Top 10. Don´t think any will remain there after reviewing Solitude Dominance Tragedy though.
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That's actually pretty smart. I think I'll keep tabs of my top 10 and update the ranking with each album we review. Curious to see how it'll end up looking once we're done!
 
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